ProWritingAid
When you start your first site or make a blog, it may seem easy to write posts and keep your blog updated. However, crafting quality content with as few mistakes as possible requires one hundred percent dedication. Even with careful focus, you may miss a word or two, simply forget to use a comma, or choose an incorrect synonym.
This is where you can use help from a form of artificial intelligence that can act as your personal editor.
Although Grammarly may be the most recognized software for the job, there are also alternatives like ProWritingAid that can also support your writing efforts.
Detailed ProWritingAid review
- Who should use the ProWritingAid grammar tool?
- Is ProWritingAid easy to use?
- How to use ProWritingAid
- The plagiarism detector
- What do you get with the free version?
- What do you get with the premium version?
- Comparison table
- FAQs
Who should use the ProWritingAid grammar tool?
ProWritingAid is a good choice for any writer who wants their content to be better. Whether you only need a couple of paragraphs checked per month or you demolish your keyboard on a daily basis, you can benefit from a grammar tool like ProWritingAid.
This tool is best for:
- Students and academics – Writing essays can be tough, and creating quality research papers takes away the time needed for checking grammar and spelling.
- Bloggers – Both Google algorithms and eager readers love well-written articles with as few mistakes as possible.
- Writers – Don’t embarrass yourself by sending low-quality work to an editor.
- Businessmen – Because even simple emails and reports need to be well-written.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a professional in any field, if you need to write a lot, ProWritingAid is definitely something to consider.
Is ProWritingAid easy to use?
Obtaining an account couldn’t be easier. The moment you open ProWritingAid, you will find a button that allows you to open your free account. All it takes is entering your email address, choosing a password, and selecting the type of assistance you need.
A few seconds later, you will find an email from ProWritingAid in your inbox. This email contains a link that will activate your account and redirect you to the dashboard. Everything moved surprisingly quickly for me, and I was able to start checking my first text immediately.
Starting a free trial run is also only a click away. Kudos to the developers who made the entire registration process extremely straightforward.
When it comes to the dashboard, I had a poor first impression. The entire dashboard felt dated. It was a deja vu that made me feel like I was using Windows 98 software.
Perhaps I am overreacting, but the dashboard could definitely benefit from an update. The plain old icons and colors may not be that important, but the user interface is also problematic. The icons seem scattered, and it feels like there are so many of them. It definitely takes some time to get familiarized with the entire working area, so be patient.
When I opened the dashboard on my ultrawide screen, some labels tore off and displayed on the far right-hand side of the screen. I had to minimize the window to get everything to display correctly so that I could understand all of the reports available on the screen.
Checking your text also requires that you know what you’re about to do. Instead of running all of the tools together, you will need to start each report separately. For example, if you check for grammar, that will take you one click of a button. Then, if you decide to check for the length of your sentences, you will have to click another button and lose the prior suggestions for grammar. This was definitely not something that I was expecting.
How to use ProWritingAid
There are several ways that you can use ProWritingAid.
Online editor – run reports by uploading documents
When you log in to the online editor, you have a chance to upload a document or start writing directly into the editor. Your content is right in the center, while all of the available tools hang at the top of the screen.
The dashboard allows you to turn on and off the writing assistant that checks grammar, spelling, and style of writing in real-time. Some people like to have real-time suggestions, while others prefer clicking the button afterward. It’s nice to have an option that suits your style.
There are 25 reports available for each document. The main one is a summary, which is a report that will show you everything that you need to know about your document. This summary offers even more than most people need. While it sounds great in theory to have a summary of the entire text, along with suggestions, scores, and graphs, I felt quite intimidated by it. The summary report I got for an introductory paragraph had 9 pages!
This report was overwhelming and it seems like at least half an hour would be needed just to go through it. The report is definitely not designed for impatient folks who want quick suggestions and corrections of their texts. However, if you do not like having a single huge report about your text, you can craft custom ones and only use the reports with information that you really want.
Other reports include:
- Style – Check the style of writing. For example, overuse of the passive voice.
- Grammar – Grammatical and spelling mistakes are highlighted.
- Thesaurus – Get synonyms for your words.
- Overused – Replace words that are used too much.
- Combo – Combine your favorite reports into one.
- All Repeats – Check for repeated words and phrases.
- Echoes – Check for repeated words in close proximity.
- Structure – Compares your usage of different sentence structures.
- Length – A visual representation of sentence length.
- Transition – Check how well you transition from one sentence to another.
- Readability – Check to see if your text is easy to read and understand.
- Sticky – Sticky sentences slow readers down, so you can now easily avoid them.
- Cliches – Check for cliches and redundancies.
- Diction – Check for diction and vague words.
- Pronoun – Highlight the initial pronouns in your text.
- Alliteration – Highlights all alliterations.
- Homonym – Check for words that sound alike but are actually different.
- Consistency – Pick up on inconsistencies in the text and fix them quickly.
- Acronym – List all of the acronyms found in your text.
- Dialogue – Highlights the dialogue and dialogue tags.
- Pacing – Find slower-paced parts of your text so that you can improve it.
- Sensory – Modify the text, and make it more understandable to the general audience.
- House – Create a custom report that you will use with your team.
- Plagiarism – Check to see if the text is unique.
Have ProWritingAid check everything you write in a browser
Along with the web-based editor and the dashboard, you can also have ProWritingAid attached to your browser. You can quickly install the add-on to Chrome, Firefox, or Safari, and artificial intelligence will instantly start helping you with any site that you open.
The add-on will pop up anywhere you write social media, content management systems like WordPress or Wix, or any other editor. It will work even on Google Docs, and will nicely highlight your mistakes.
The add-on looks sleek, and it feels like it shows reports faster than the Online Editor that is accessed from the dashboard. On the other hand, having the add-on activated while I was writing in Google Docs completely slowed down my document. Every word I typed came with a small hitch and showed my text a second later. It was quite annoying, and I couldn’t imagine working like this for an extended period of time.
However, this could be an isolated case, and might not occur for others using the add-on.
The premium version allows you to use real-time reports that check for grammar, style, and spelling while you write. This comes in very handy while writing in your browser.
Get a Microsoft Word assistant
If you’re a Windows user, you will be happy to hear that ProWritingAid works with Microsoft Word. You only need to download the application, and all of the available reports from your account will be visible in each Word document that you open.
Unfortunately, this works only on Windows, while Mac users are advised to use the desktop app (which will also work in Word).
Use ProWritingAid on any desktop app
Similar to the browser extension, the desktop app will run on your computer (Windows or Mac) and will check your writing. Having it loaded on your computer will mean that you can use any text editor or email software, and have your text easily checked.
The only downside to the desktop app is that it requires an active internet connection. So, if you need to have your text checked in an area with a low or no internet connection, you will have to wait until your computer is online.
The plagiarism detector
ProWritingAid allows you to quickly check your text against millions of pages found online. It will show you a report in a matter of seconds and will let you know if the text is unique. It will also show you the source of any plagiarised content.
While this works well, the price is a huge drawback. You have to pay $10 for ten checks! The price goes down if you purchase in bulk, but when compared to Grammarly who doesn’t charge anything extra for checking plagiarism, this feels like a rip-off.
Plagiarism example
Still, we managed to check one of the earlier articles published on FirstSiteGuide. The plagiarism checker was quick, but it only found 40% of the text that we copied from our old article, so I can’t say that I would give them $1 per check for this type of result.
What do you get with the free version?
With the free version of ProWritingAid, you will be able to check documents of up to 500 words. That is definitely not enough for checking entire articles, essays, or books, but it is just enough to use it for free in your browser when writing shorter texts or emails.
All 25 reports are available in the online editor, so it’s a good way to see what the service is capable of.
Along with the free version, you can start a free trial period, and check the premium platform out for two weeks. If you decide to continue using it, you will have to start paying for the service on a monthly or yearly basis. If you really like how ProWritingAid works, you can purchase a lifetime license for $399.
What do you get with the premium version?
If you decide to upgrade, the premium version will allow you to work on full chapters and articles, regardless of length. You will also receive access to all of the available apps (desktop, as well as add-ons for MS Word, Google Docs, and Chrome where you can use all reports). Also, you receive free access to ProWritingAid’s collection of writing books and resources.
Comparison table
| Grammarly | ProWritingAid | Linguix | |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Premium version | From $11.66/month | From $10/month | From $8/month |
| Plagiarism checker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Translator | No | No | No |
| Integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Smartphone version | Yes | No | No |
FAQs
Yes, you can quickly sign up for a free version of the service, and start checking reports on your grammar. However, note that the free version only allows you to check documents that are no longer than 500 words, and that it works only in your Browser.
Although ProWritingAid is a good alternative to Grammarly, it can’t match the power and versatility of the more popular service. Grammarly looks better, works on smartphones, and comes with a plagiarism checker that has no limits.
Yes, you can. ProWritingAid offers a free yearly subscription to everyone who manages to refer ten friends. Once you start using the service, simply send an email to your friends through ProWritingAid. The system will generate a message and your unique link. If ten people sign up, you will instantly receive your free premium account for one year.
Conclusion
ProWritingAid is a functional grammar checker, style editor, and writing mentor that will help you edit your articles, documents, or books as well as your emails. It can work well in your browser even with the free version and will expand its assistance to other apps if you decide to upgrade to premium.
